Caribbean Paradise in Mexico

mahahual environmental groups

Maybe you have seen us on Sunday mornings passing by with bulging black plastic bags, sun screen slathered on thick, scavenging the trash that lines the residential streets of “Casitas” here in Mahahual, ironically smiling and laughing while we do the dirtiest of dirty work. Maybe you have seen the posts that pop up in the two facebook groups that serve as the local newspaper here in Costa Maya, “Amigos Unidos Por Mahahual” and “Todos Somos Mahahual”, where we proudly pose by the week’s harvest of litter. Or maybe you have even participated, as our group welcomes all comers who want to throw in a little Sunday sweat to make our town more beautiful.

We have no group name or official affiliation with any political party, environmental or activist group. And we have no motivation other than doing our part to try and make Mahahual as beautiful as it should be, for ourselves just as much as anybody else. We aren’t paid or rewarded other than the strangely fulfilling feeling that you get from doing something nice for your community. It really is addictive. And the only thing we are looking to get out of it is more participation from the community and a better image of our town for ourselves and those that travel here from afar.

We want a clean and beautiful home and one of our main goals to help reduce trash in the streets and keep us from perpetually repeating this weekly ritual is to find ways to provide curbside trash cans for each house in Mahahual. A majority of the homes here in town simply bundle their trash in plastic bags and place them on the sidewalk for the trash truck to pick up. The problem is that this rings the dinner bell for dogs, cats, raccoons, monkeys, hippopotami…you name it, to come in and let the feast begin. They easily open the bags looking for food and the rest of the trash spills out into the street to scatter with the warm tropical wind.

Now some would say, “Isn’t it the responsibility of each homeowner to get their own trashcan? How much hassle could it be?” And if you don’t know the answer to that question then you haven’t spent enough time here. Things don’t always come down to reason on the Mayan coast. But, we want a clean Mahahual and if the homeowners without bins haven’t gotten one by now, they aren’t going to get one any time soon. So, we prefer to provide one for them just to make it easier on ourselves and achieve our goals of a clean green Mahahual.

This week, some members of our group scored a huge victory and were able to put together a letter to present to the Costa Maya Port, signed by members of the community, to ask for a donation of trash cans and they said they would be happy to help! So a big thank you goes out to them and they stand to benefit as much as any of us from clean streets if cruise ship tourists aren’t presented with a littered paradise.

We are going to continue to do our part to keep this natural gem sparkling and hopefully inspire others to join us. With time, the efforts of ours as well as other groups in Mahahual dedicated to education and conservation will hopefully pay off and we won’t need to get together every week to clean up. Our Sunday reunions will be but a fond memory. But for now we will keep putting on the gloves, boots, and mosquito repellent and hitting the streets because we ARE making a difference.

When you are in town visiting be sure to check for our posts on the facebook groups and join us if you can! It is a very rewarding feeling and we don’t turn anybody away!